Your first deploy

This chapter deploys the Hive from the previous chapter. It assumes you can reach web-01 over SSH and that your user can escalate to root there.

Build before you deploy

Start by building the configuration without touching the target. This catches evaluation and build errors early:

navi apply build --on web-01

Navi evaluates the Hive, then builds the system closure for the selected node. Nothing is copied or activated yet.

Push and activate

When the build succeeds, apply the configuration:

navi apply --on web-01

With no goal given, apply runs the full sequence. It builds the closure, copies it to the target, and activates it as the new system generation. If activation fails, the previous generation stays active, so a bad deploy does not leave the machine in a broken state.

Selecting nodes

The --on flag selects which nodes to act on. It accepts node names, tags, and group expressions, so a single command can target one machine or a whole class of them. With no --on, Navi acts on every node in the Hive.

navi apply --on web-01,web-02
navi apply --on @web

Deployment goals

apply takes an optional goal that stops the sequence early:

• build evaluates and builds only.
• push also copies the closure to the target.
• switch activates immediately and makes the change persist across reboots.
• boot makes the change take effect on the next reboot only.

Running apply with no goal is equivalent to switch.

You now have a deployed node. The guides cover what happens behind these commands and the features built on top of them.